Four UCD researchers receive ERC Starting Grants for groundbreaking research projects
The awardees will explore a range of research topics including musculoskeletal pain, fluid dynamics, criminal organisations and the evolution of livestock health.
4 September 2025: Four academics from University College Dublin (UCD) have received European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants to support their research. The UCD awardees will each receive over €1.5 million for their projects, which explore a range of research topics includingmusculoskeletal pain, fluid dynamics, criminal organisations and the evolution of livestock health.
A total of eight grants were awarded to researchers based in Ireland in this round. The recipients are among 478 early-career researchers selected by the ERC from across Europe. With a total funding of €761 million, these grants support excellent research across diverse fields.
The backing will help researchers at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, build research teams and pursue their most promising ideas. This round of grants is estimated to create some 3,000 jobs within the teams of the new awardees.
Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said, “Among the winners in this new round of EU funding are researchers of 51 nationalities. They will be advancing knowledge across a wide range of scientific fields. We see leading scientists coming to Europe with these new grants, and many choosing to remain here thanks to this support. This demonstrates Europe’s potential to attract and keep top scientific talent.”
President of the ERC, Professor Maria Leptin said, “All these bright minds and the plethora of brilliant ideas that they will go after really inspire me, and so does their scientific creativity. It also gives hope that Europe empowers them and backs them. Yet, we could do more! Only 12% of all proposals in this competition are being funded, even if many more are excellent. More investment in this type of science is needed for Europe to reach its full potential.”
UCD has now secured 39 main ERC grants under the Horizon Europe Programme. Totalling approx €78 million, this constitutes approx 45% of the national ERC total for the programme.
Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, said, “Congratulations to the four UCD academics who have received ERC Starting Grants. Their innovative projects promise to make major contributions to their fields and address critical scientific and societal challenges. We are committed to supporting academic career development and ambitious research at every stage in UCD, and we look forward to following the progress of these outstanding researchers.”
The UCD projects are:
SurFSUP: Surfing on Free Surfaces by Undulating Propulsion
PI: Dr Graham Benham, Assistant Professor, UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics
Wave-driven propulsion (WDP) is a little-known form of locomotion in which a floating body propels itself forward by generating surface waves – like water striders and water snakes do. The SurFSUP project will explore how this phenomenon occurs, paving the way for sustainable solutions across environmental and industrial sectors.
Dr Graham Benham explained, “Wave-driven propulsion has the potential to revolutionise engineering applications. By combining lab experiments and simulations, the SurFSUP project will reveal how we can harness waves for propulsion, with the goal of unlocking new technologies for sustainable transport, environmental cleanup, and smart farming.
“This ERC grant will give me the time, resources, and freedom to explore a new frontier in fluid dynamics, build a unique experimental setup, and develop technologies with real-world impact in sustainability and environmental engineering.”
HERDPATH: The genomic consequences of domestication for ruminant pathogen evolution and herd diversity across ten millennia
PI: Dr Kevin Daly, Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow at UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science
The domestication of livestock starting about 10,000 years ago brought many species together in and around human settlements for the first time. These early herding communities presented new opportunities for pathogens to spread from one animal to another, and between animal and human, leading to evolution of new infectious diseases.
HERDPATH will use DNA molecules from thousands-of-years-old sheep and goat remains to reveal how infectious diseases adapted to their hosts and how livestock adapted in return.
Dr Kevin Daly said, “Animal-specific diseases have been neglected in our studies of how pathogens have affected human societies. This research will uncover how species adapted in the face of new pathogen threats and responded to developments in animal breeding. The project will shed light on how the diseases that blight livestock farming societies today evolved and adapted, allowing us to identify genetic targets for breeding disease-resistant animals and potentially new ways to proactively fight infectious livestock disease.
“This ERC Starting Grant will completely transform my research trajectory. Building a team of enthusiastic PhD students and talented postdocs, getting to engage together on big, discipline-spanning questions while working with an incredible group of international collaborators from many different fields – it’s the stuff of dreams.”
PainSupportLink: New frontiers in chronic pain management – A personalised support package targeting the mechanistic links between social disadvantage and pain sensitisation
PI: Dr Mary O’Keeffe, Ad Astra Fellow, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science
Long-term musculoskeletal pain, such as back pain, affects billions of people worldwide and is the leading cause of disability. Yet it does not affect everyone equally: people living in deprived areas, facing financial strain, insecure work, or social isolation are hit hardest, and current treatments rarely address these challenges.
PainSupportLink will be the first project to explore how biology, psychology and social life combine – including how hardship may prime the body’s stress, immune and nervous systems. It will build personalised ways to support those most affected, linking clinical care with community support.
Dr Mary O’Keeffe said, “Long-term pain doesn’t just hurt, it can take over your whole life – from sleep and movement, to friendships and hobbies. This project is about connecting medical treatment with real-world support, to give people a fairer chance to live well with less pain.
“The research will be co-designed with patients, tested in a clinical trial, and if successful will deliver a scalable model of equitable, people-centred care that could be adapted across health services in Ireland and beyond.”
CRIMLATAM: Criminal Governance in Unexpected Contexts: the Role of the Welfare State in Latin America
PI: Dr Lucía Tiscornia, Assistant Professor, UCD School of Politics & International Relations
The impact of criminal organisations – gangs, mafias, drug cartels – in otherwise democratic societies can be severe, but there is limited knowledge of how criminal governance operates in these settings.
CRIMLATAM will investigate how such organisations thrive in countries with strong welfare schemes, engaging with populations who experience criminal governance but whose voices are largely missing from the current research. With a focus on Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica, the project will offer valuable lessons for any country dealing with organised crime despite strong social welfare provision.
Dr LucíaTiscornia said, “CRIMLATAM aims to show how criminal groups adapt and operate in unexpected environments. The project will improve our understanding of one of the most persistent challenges for democracies today and aims to demonstrate that governments can make choices that reduce the societal impact of criminal organisations.
“This ERC grant provides me with the necessary resources to address a significant social challenge from a different perspective. It also represents an important validation of work I have been conducting for several years, allowing me to dedicate myself fully to this project, with the goal of producing findings that will contribute to academic knowledge and policymaking.”
For more information on the ERC Advanced Grants and a full list of awarded projects, visit the ERC website.The awardees will explore a range of research topics including musculoskeletal pain, fluid dynamics, criminal organisations and the evolution of livestock health.
4 September 2025: Four academics from University College Dublin (UCD) have received European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants to support their research. The UCD awardees will each receive over €1.5 million for their projects, which explore a range of research topics includingmusculoskeletal pain, fluid dynamics, criminal organisations and the evolution of livestock health.
A total of eight grants were awarded to researchers based in Ireland in this round. The recipients are among 478 early-career researchers selected by the ERC from across Europe. With a total funding of €761 million, these grants support excellent research across diverse fields.
The backing will help researchers at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, build research teams and pursue their most promising ideas. This round of grants is estimated to create some 3,000 jobs within the teams of the new awardees.
Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said, “Among the winners in this new round of EU funding are researchers of 51 nationalities. They will be advancing knowledge across a wide range of scientific fields. We see leading scientists coming to Europe with these new grants, and many choosing to remain here thanks to this support. This demonstrates Europe’s potential to attract and keep top scientific talent.”
President of the ERC, Professor Maria Leptin said, “All these bright minds and the plethora of brilliant ideas that they will go after really inspire me, and so does their scientific creativity. It also gives hope that Europe empowers them and backs them. Yet, we could do more! Only 12% of all proposals in this competition are being funded, even if many more are excellent. More investment in this type of science is needed for Europe to reach its full potential.”
UCD has now secured 39 main ERC grants under the Horizon Europe Programme. Totalling approx €78 million, this constitutes approx 45% of the national ERC total for the programme.
Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, said, “Congratulations to the four UCD academics who have received ERC Starting Grants. Their innovative projects promise to make major contributions to their fields and address critical scientific and societal challenges. We are committed to supporting academic career development and ambitious research at every stage in UCD, and we look forward to following the progress of these outstanding researchers.”
The UCD projects are:
SurFSUP: Surfing on Free Surfaces by Undulating Propulsion
PI: Dr Graham Benham, Assistant Professor, UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics
Wave-driven propulsion (WDP) is a little-known form of locomotion in which a floating body propels itself forward by generating surface waves – like water striders and water snakes do. The SurFSUP project will explore how this phenomenon occurs, paving the way for sustainable solutions across environmental and industrial sectors.
Dr Graham Benham explained, “Wave-driven propulsion has the potential to revolutionise engineering applications. By combining lab experiments and simulations, the SurFSUP project will reveal how we can harness waves for propulsion, with the goal of unlocking new technologies for sustainable transport, environmental cleanup, and smart farming.
“This ERC grant will give me the time, resources, and freedom to explore a new frontier in fluid dynamics, build a unique experimental setup, and develop technologies with real-world impact in sustainability and environmental engineering.”
HERDPATH: The genomic consequences of domestication for ruminant pathogen evolution and herd diversity across ten millennia
PI: Dr Kevin Daly, Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow at UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science
The domestication of livestock starting about 10,000 years ago brought many species together in and around human settlements for the first time. These early herding communities presented new opportunities for pathogens to spread from one animal to another, and between animal and human, leading to evolution of new infectious diseases.
HERDPATH will use DNA molecules from thousands-of-years-old sheep and goat remains to reveal how infectious diseases adapted to their hosts and how livestock adapted in return.
Dr Kevin Daly said, “Animal-specific diseases have been neglected in our studies of how pathogens have affected human societies. This research will uncover how species adapted in the face of new pathogen threats and responded to developments in animal breeding. The project will shed light on how the diseases that blight livestock farming societies today evolved and adapted, allowing us to identify genetic targets for breeding disease-resistant animals and potentially new ways to proactively fight infectious livestock disease.
“This ERC Starting Grant will completely transform my research trajectory. Building a team of enthusiastic PhD students and talented postdocs, getting to engage together on big, discipline-spanning questions while working with an incredible group of international collaborators from many different fields – it’s the stuff of dreams.”
PainSupportLink: New frontiers in chronic pain management – A personalised support package targeting the mechanistic links between social disadvantage and pain sensitisation
PI: Dr Mary O’Keeffe, Ad Astra Fellow, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science
Long-term musculoskeletal pain, such as back pain, affects billions of people worldwide and is the leading cause of disability. Yet it does not affect everyone equally: people living in deprived areas, facing financial strain, insecure work, or social isolation are hit hardest, and current treatments rarely address these challenges.
PainSupportLink will be the first project to explore how biology, psychology and social life combine – including how hardship may prime the body’s stress, immune and nervous systems. It will build personalised ways to support those most affected, linking clinical care with community support.
Dr Mary O’Keeffe said, “Long-term pain doesn’t just hurt, it can take over your whole life – from sleep and movement, to friendships and hobbies. This project is about connecting medical treatment with real-world support, to give people a fairer chance to live well with less pain.
“The research will be co-designed with patients, tested in a clinical trial, and if successful will deliver a scalable model of equitable, people-centred care that could be adapted across health services in Ireland and beyond.”
CRIMLATAM: Criminal Governance in Unexpected Contexts: the Role of the Welfare State in Latin America
PI: Dr Lucía Tiscornia, Assistant Professor, UCD School of Politics & International Relations
The impact of criminal organisations – gangs, mafias, drug cartels – in otherwise democratic societies can be severe, but there is limited knowledge of how criminal governance operates in these settings.
CRIMLATAM will investigate how such organisations thrive in countries with strong welfare schemes, engaging with populations who experience criminal governance but whose voices are largely missing from the current research. With a focus on Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica, the project will offer valuable lessons for any country dealing with organised crime despite strong social welfare provision.
Dr LucíaTiscornia said, “CRIMLATAM aims to show how criminal groups adapt and operate in unexpected environments. The project will improve our understanding of one of the most persistent challenges for democracies today and aims to demonstrate that governments can make choices that reduce the societal impact of criminal organisations.
“This ERC grant provides me with the necessary resources to address a significant social challenge from a different perspective. It also represents an important validation of work I have been conducting for several years, allowing me to dedicate myself fully to this project, with the goal of producing findings that will contribute to academic knowledge and policymaking.”
For more information on the ERC Advanced Grants and a full list of awarded projects, visit the ERC website.
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